Bamboozled April 25, 2018: Driver stuck with two loans after car dealer excuse-a-thon

For four months, Michelle Spataro has been trying to get Union Auto Sale to pay off a car loan for her trade-in. (Michelle Spataro)

When you buy a car, dealers try to sweeten the offer.

It’s common for a dealer to take your trade-in and pay off your remaining loan or lease if you buy a vehicle from the dealership.

Union Auto Sale of Ringwood offered that deal to Michelle Spataro, and she bit.

She purchased a 2017 BMW X3 for $32,222. The dealer agreed to take her trade-in — a 2014 BMW X1 — and pay off the remaining $14,867 loan to BMW Financial, documents show. The rest of the financing came from a credit union loan.

That was on Nov. 3.

More than four months later, Spataro’s old loan hadn’t been paid, so she was responsible for two payments every month — her old loan and the new one.

What’s more, Union Auto Sale owner Peter Samaan promised over and over the payments would be made, she said. Instead, Spataro received a bounced check, tracking numbers for mailings that were never sent and, one time, an empty Fedex envelope that was supposed to contain a check.

“I am at my wit’s end and I think I may have to go to the car lot and repossess my own car,” said Spartaro.

Spataro isn’t the only customer to have a negative experience with the company. More on that in a moment.

A text between Michelle Spataro and David Shenouda of United Auto Sale. (Michelle Spataro)

How it happened

When she received her December statement from BMW and saw the car hadn’t been paid off, she called her salesman, David Shenouda, she said.

We later learned he’s Samaan’s partner.

In several texts, Shenouda gave tracking numbers for payments that were never sent. After that, he gave other excuses. He was sick. Then he was traveling. Then, a new reason.

“He told me they ran out of checks and couldn’t pay the payoff until the checks came in,” Spataro said. “He assured me that the car would be paid off.”

That didn’t happen by the time the January payment was due, Spataro said, and her calls to the dealership yielded promises but no action.

So she called Ringwood police.

“If something happens with my car while being on their car lot, I am legally responsible,” she said. “The police officer informed them that if they sell the car without having the title, they will be arrested for selling stolen property.”

Spataro said the officer spoke to Samaan, who said he didn’t know about the problem. He pledged to fix it, and he gave the officer his cell number, Spataro said.

For the next two months, according to Spataro and the text messages that back up her story, things didn’t get better.

Samaan texted Spataro multiple tracking numbers and mailing labels for payments he said were sent. But when she looked up the tracking numbers, Spataro said, she realized it showed only that labels were generated. Nothing had been mailed.

One envelope Samaan did actually send was addressed to Samaan himself, rather than to Spataro, so he received the “payment.” Samaan said it was an accident, text messages show.

Other times, Samaan texted about payoffs he supposedly made to BMW. But when Spataro called BMW, it said the wire instructions it was given contained incorrect banking information. As a result, no payments went through.

“Peter [Samaan] swore he had proof from his bank that BMW received the money and that BMW is stealing from him,” Spataro said. “To this day, he has not proven that BMW received this wire transfer.”

Another time, she said, Samaan asked for Spataro’s bank account number so he could wire her funds.

“I told him absolutely not because I do not trust him and his shady business practices,” Spataro said.

A redacted copy of the bounced check, and a photo of the empty Fedex envelope. (Michelle Spataro)

A bounced check, empty envelope

Still another time, Spataro received a check in the mail.

It bounced.

“[Samaan] said that his account was hacked and that he will send me another check, plus my bank fees,” she said.

On a different occasion, Samaan texted Spataro yet another tracking number, which showed the package would be delivered to a store.

When the package arrived, Spataro went to pick it up.

“In front of a store employee and on store surveillance cameras, I opened the envelope that Mr. Samaan sent to me,” she said. “The envelope was empty.”

Finally, Samaan gave Spataro his attorney’s contact information. The lawyer said he would get a check from Samaan and put it into his escrow account, from which he could pay Spataro, she said.

Samaan finally gave a check to his attorney, but the attorney told Spataro he was waiting to deposit it because there weren’t enough funds to cover the check, she said.

State paperwork showing David Shenouda replaced Jennifer Samaan on incorporation papers for Union Auto Sale I. (State of New Jersey)

A closer look

We took a closer look at the company.

Public records show Union Auto Sales Inc. of Totowa incorporated in 1996. The company is also known as Pascack Auto Exchange I. The current registered owners all share the Samaan name: Peter, Jennifer and Barbara. There are 16 lawsuits, including 14 judgments, against the company.

Union Auto Sale LLC of Pompton Lakes was incorporated by Peter Samaan and David Shenouda in March 2017. Samaan’s name was removed from the paperwork in May 2017, leaving Shenouda as the sole owner. The company lists Bergen County Motors LLC as an alternate name in public records.

Union Auto Sale I LLC of Ringwood was incorporated in August 2017 by Jennifer Samaan. Samaan was replaced by David Shenouda as the company’s agent in November 2017. Public records showed one lawsuit that ended in a judgment against the company.

Of the individuals involved in the companies, two suits against Barbara Samaan were dismissed, Jennifer Samaan had one dismissal and one judgment, and Peter Samaan had nine judgments, one default judgment, one settlement and two dismissals. David Shenouda wasn’t named in any cases on his own, but he was a co-defendant in the case Peter Samaan settled.

The Division of Consumer Affairs said it’s investigating Spartaro’s complaint. It said it had three “closed” complaints against the companies: one in 2011 and two in 2010.

A screen shot of the Better Business Bureau page for Union Auto Sale I. (BBB.org)

More complaints and a promise

The Better Business Bureau, which ranks Union Auto Sale with a D+ rating, closed Spataro’s complaint because the business didn’t respond.

We asked Samaan for his version of events.

“My attorney has the payment for her loan,” he said on March 9. “A certified check is going to be sent today.”

We asked what went wrong, noting there are two sides to every story.

Samaan asked us to reach back to him in a few days.

We did, but he didn’t respond, and neither did his attorney.

On March 14, Samaan said checks were mailed.

We asked if the checks came from his attorney’s account or his, and he said they decided “it would be more efficient if I sent it.”

Samaan promised to send the tracking numbers.

“To your other questions,” he said, “This has never happened to me before, and you know, there’s a big old mix-up. One person was dealing with it and he didn’t know how to deal with it correctly.”

We asked if the other person was his partner David Shenouda.

“David isn’t a partner. He’s an employee,” he said.

We explained that Shenouda is listed on state documents as an owner of the business.

“I didn’t know that. That’s a mistake,” Samaan said.

The $1,850 check sent from Peter Samaan to Michelle Spataro.(Michelle Spataro)

A conclusion

We received two tracking numbers. And on March 16, Spataro received a check for $1,850 from Samaan’s personal account, postdated March 18.

A bank teller told Spataro there wasn’t enough money in the account to cover the check, Spataro said.

We reached out to Ringwood police chief Joseph Walker about what a bounced check would mean. After our call, Walker said, he stopped by the dealership. An employee put him on the phone with Samaan, who said he would make it right, Walker said.

A few hours later, Spataro returned to the bank. She again asked if there was enough money to cover the check. A teller and two managers examined the check and “huddled around the computer for 10 minutes,” she said. When the teller came back, she counted out the cash and handed it to Spataro.

Next she called BMW, which confirmed it received a payment from Samaan. It cleared and her account was closed, she said, and BMW would be sending her the car’s title.

Spataro wondered how long she would hold onto the title before giving it to Samaan, but alas, BMW sent the title to the company.